Say cheese! Mercury is caught on camera

Make your own Mercury craters

NASA's MESSENGER spacecraft has
finally reached Mercury. Now, us earthlings can see parts of
Mercury that we've never seen before. MESSENGER has beamed back the
first ever pictures taken within Mercury's orbit. Check out the
crater in this picture. It's 39 miles wide!

Craters form when giant rocks, or
asteroids, smash into the Mercury. This causes a huge collision.
Rubble is thrown up into the air and then falls back to Mercury's
surface, making lots of smaller craters.

Make your own
craters!

You could take pictures of craters,
just like the MESSENGER spacecraft. Do this outside so you don't
make a mess! Get a big tray, or a tupperware container. Fill it
with a mix of flour and hot chocolate powder. Collect up some round
objects of different sizes - try marbles and golf balls. Now, drop
the round objects into the tray. What size craters do they make?
What happens if you change the height that you drop the objects
from?

If you have a camera you can take
photos like this. Make up your own names for the craters!